According to you what could be the most important thing to start a business? Well, in my opinion, it is the vision behind your idea and will to do it. If you have the will to build something great, then probably you will make it. Just like this duo of young friends from Kolkata; founders of Wow Momo Foods Pvt. Ltd started from scratch and cooked up a delightful success story in 10 years. Wow Momo which started with just an investment of Rs. 30,000 now valued more than 100 crore rupees. This all happened because of the strong will and determination of Sagar Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai; brain behind the Wow Momo Pvt. Ltd.

How the Journey of Wow Momo Began

Sagar Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai apart sharing the same batch and course of M.Com at St. Xavier’s college in Kolkata, also share their love for momos. Binod being a resident of Nepal, naturally had that love of momos while Sagar used to eat momos from momo-seller outside his school. One thing that Sagar observed and learned from that momo seller was that one could do variations and make quality momos in a short span of time. So he decided to do experiments with Momos and shared his idea with Binod. When Binod heard the idea, he immediately jumped in it. But the real problem was of initial funding.

Begining of Wow Momo with Rs.30,000 and a small kiosk

When these young guys were struggling with lack of funds, that is when Sagar’s parents came forward and offered an initial investment of Rs. 30,000. Sagar also convinced his family to let them use the ground floor of their relative’s house in Jadavpur at the kitchen, on which they agreed. In 2008, they gave their idea a name of Wow Momo. A 200-square-foot kitchen with one table, two part-time cooks on a nominal salary, raw material taken on credit from a local grocery shop became the ingredients of their fledgeling business.

Initial struggles and Marketing tactics

Fortunately, they managed to get a 6*6 kiosk at Spencer’s Retail in south Kolkata on rent at 18% revenue share per month. They used bright yellow colour for kiosk to do promotional activities and marketing campaigns. They always had a product-oriented marketing campaign. Binod and Sagar used to wear Wow Momo t-shirt and go up to customers with a tray of momos for sampling, as they didn’t have money for printing leaflets. People started understood their concept and on the first day, they had a sale of around Rs. 2200 and touched Rs. 53000 at the end of the month.

Expansion and Turning Point for Wow Momo

When the duo starts getting a positive response from customers, the managers of hypermarkets approached them and offered kiosk space in their other branches also. In 2010, they opened their first independent outlet at Sector V in salt lake, Kolkata with an investment of Rs.14 Lakhs. Later they decided to expand in other cities also, and thus in 2011, opened Wow Momo outlet at Phoenix, Bangalore. Today they have more than 95+ outlets all over India. They designed their menu in such a way that their smallest kiosk of 7*7 generates revenue of more than 12 lakhs per month.

During their expansion, they never raised funding as money wasn’t a problem for them. They kept their model simple with 16 types of Momos and three types of sauces. They did not know the formalities of new business and faced many difficulties initially. But because of their simple model and marketing tactics, Wow Momo crossed the revenue of 100 Crores. In July 2015, they raised their very first funding of more than $2 million from the Indian Angel Network. In May 2017, they raised Series-B funding of INR. 440 million. Since then there is no looking back.

Author’s Point of View:

At the time when the duo was thinking to work on their of Wow Momo, they got a lucrative job offer from the International bank during their campus placement with packages of over 3 lacs per annum. But they took the risk at that time by rejecting that offer to working on their idea. And the result of that is in front of everyone today as Success Story of Wow Momo. Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks, learn from them and chasing your dream. Start following your dreams, as who knows you will be the next.

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About Divya Gupta

Divya is a skilled business developer and the conceptual mind behind bold and bright ideas. She has an eye for the smallest detail which defines her work. She can reflect and analyze work like nobody else and never lets the bigger picture escape from sight. Sometimes she says – Let’s do it all over again!